Items for which space could not be found last week
*** EMU/Sweden: According to the results of a poll published last Tuesday by the daily, Dagens Nyheter, if a referendum on Sweden's entry to the euro were to be held now, 41% of the Swedes would be against and 35% in favour. A survey was carried out in February indicating that 40% of those questioned were in favour of entry to the euro zone and 32% against. We recall that, on 10 March, during their congress, the Swedish Social Democrats took a stance in favour of joining the euro zone and in favour of a referendum.
*** EU/Saudi Arabia: Amnesty International has launched its first world-wide campaign aimed at putting an end to the "silence about the terror and injustice suffered by people in Saudi Arabia". It stressed that the EU "shares the responsibility to help end the suffering" and should publicly condemn the human rights violations in this country, and, above all, call on it to abolish the death penalty. The "strategic interests and the trade surpluses are unacceptable excuses" for closing one's eyes to these violations, states Dick Oosting, from Amnesty International (recalling that Saudi Arabia has one of the highest execution rates in the world - currently an average of two per week, states the organisation).
*** EU/Germany: The new spokesman for the CDU/CSU group at the Bundestag, Mr Merz, said in Brussels, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine, that the CDU//CSU will maintain its pro-European line even after its change of leadership, following the nomination of Angela Merkel as CDU president. (We recall that Mr Merz was MEP).
*** EU/United Kingdom: British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a speech on 28 March in London before the leaders of several regional newspapers that he is continuing his work of persuasion on his country's pro-European policy. "Standing up for Britain does not mean being anti-Europe", as the EU is "part of the modern world" and "Britain is part of the EU", he said, in particular, considering, moreover, that one of the "greatest failings" of the post-war period has been the "absence of a shared long-term vision of where we were going" (it should be noted that Mr Blair used the term "vision", that Ms Thatcher finds objectionable).
*** EP/Austria: European elected CDU member Harmut Nassauer has again asked, during a visit to Vienna, that the Fourteen lift their bilateral sanctions against Austria. In his view, one cannot, for example, sit round the same negotiation table with the Austrians in the context of the Intergovernmental Conference or EU enlargement talks, "playing the game of the EU in full view while giving bilateral kicks under the table".
*** EP/Italy: Patrizia Toja, Italian Minister for Community Policy, met on 29 March in Brussels the Italian officials at the Commission and Italian MEPs. She stressed before the latter the growing attention of the Italian Parliament to European affairs and the need to maintain a close link between the Italian government and MEPs. On the same day, Vittorio Coalo, Omnitel Managing Director, said in Brussels, before Italian MEPs, that it was necessary to continue liberalisation of the telecommunications market which has already, in his view, achieved positive results for employment also.
*** EP/France: On the occasion of her recent official visit to France, European Parliament President Nicole Fontaine signed a cooperation agreement with the European Parliament and the parliamentary television channel of the Senate.
*** Ireland/Immigration: Mary Harney, Irish Vice-Prime Minister, announced last week that the government was to adopt new measures on employment and immigration, by introducing a new system of visas allowing people from European Economic Area non-member countries to obtain a work permit in Ireland. Given our economic growth, we consider that we shall need another 28,000 workers in over six years, she said, while foreseeing that one part of these workers will be "emigrants returning".
*** Greece/United Kingdom/culture: Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou and Culture Minister Elizabeth Papazoi have presented to the House of Commons committee on culture a memorandum calling once more for the Parthenon Marbles to be returned to Greece (the 56 sculptured friezes - the Elgin Marbles - which, according to the UK, had been legally bought in 1806 from the Ottoman Empire by British Diplomat Thomas Bruce Elgin). The parliamentary committee chaired by Gerald Kaufman will present a report and recommendations (non binding) to the government on the problem of "cultural property: restitution and unlawful trade".